Feeding chickens wet feed?

[bbishop]

Wet feed can kill chickens in there system

 

[aggiemae]

Wet feed will not harm a chicken unless its turned or moldy.

 

[shober]

I have dry lay mash in a large container that they can access at any time. In the morning I put extra mash into a separate. T special container and wet it. They love it! I've been doing this for years. They always finish the portion. I have 9 hens and feed and wet about 2½ cups of layer mash.

 

[Beekissed]

You ought to take that one step further and ferment your mash....it will supersize your nutrition and has multiple benefits to the birds and coop environment and they will love it even more!

 

[tesaba]

This is a very good blog with the simple easy steps to FF I haven't tried it yet, but I Intend too try it at least once

http://rustonpoultryfarm.wordpress.com/2013/10/03/fermented-feed-for-your-flock/

 

[Sirracha]

Thanks for all the info. I, like most readers after reading this, think that it's too much of a chore to do. Having some chicks in my room, I can say, it's as easy as making oatmeal and there's no waste. Plus the sour smell of poop is gone as well as the runny poo. They really do Iove it. For the big birds, I use the 5 gallon bucket because I fill it with layer feed, and they also love it. In the morning, when its cold, I use a bit of hot water for them. Nothing is more beautiful as seeing a cleaner yard free from feed tossed everywhere. Lol. $$$ is what is comes down to.

 

[waldeneffect]

Wet chicken feed can be a real bummer.

Here's a blog post on what we end up doing when this happens.

http://www.avianaquamiser.com/posts/What_to_do_with_wet_chicken_feed/

 

[oldhen2345]

I have been trying fermenting my feed and am unsure if I am doing it right. So far the chickens are healthy- have been doing it this way for about 6 months. I have three plastic canisters with lids. they are numbered 1,2 and 3. I filled #1 with a day's worth of feed (I have 4 Standard chickens and 2 bantams so I feed 4 to 4.5 cups of feed a day) and then pour water on it until it is about 2 inches above the feed line. Splash a dash of ACV with mother, stir and put the lid on. Follow day 2 with #2 then day three with#3. By day 3, #1 is fermented and can be fed to the chickens. I wash out the canister and refill. I place it at the end of the line. the next day, they get #2 and so on. Every day, the chickens have feed that has fermented 3 days and I only have to wash and fill one canister a day. Sometimes, I do see a runny stool, but not very often- they free range and may have eaten a bug or green tomato or something to cause it.

 

[lazy gardener]

Hello! For the past few weeks, I've been feeding my chickens wet feed as a change from dry feed. I heard that they get more nutritional value out of it when it is wet. I change it everyday. Is this OK? Will it grow mold in the course of a day? Is it any better than feeding chickens dry feed? It is wet feed - not fermented..

Thanks!

Better to ferment it. Then you won't need to worry about it "going bad" at the end of the day, though it's best to be familiar with how much they eat, and only give them that much so that at the end of the day, their feed dish is empty. You can read the "how and why" of FF in the article written by Tikki Jane. (click the link in my signature)

 

[biophiliac]

@mel&popcorn ... Early on while my chicks were in the brooder I began moistening their crumbles with water. I found they really liked it and less was spilled. Later I went to fermenting their food and they loved that too(more than dry). Then winter came and I got a little lazy about keeping the ferment going so I went back to just moistening with water each days ration. No problems either way and very healthy birds. FWIW